Recently, medical imaging apparatus such as CT (Computed Tomography) apparatus and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) apparatus have been widely used. With this widespread use, there have been an increasing need for interpretation or image diagnosis which determines the presence/absence of diseases under the expert observation of medical images.
Many medical institutions in which role assignment is practiced, such as general hospitals, have imaging technicians who perform imaging or interpretation doctors who perform interpretation or image diagnosis as well as doctors in charge of the medical treatment of patients. The workflows in such medical institutions generally include:    1. A doctor in charge gives an instruction to perform medical imaging.    2. An imaging technician performs imaging.    3. An interpretation doctor interprets captured images and summarizes interpretation results into an interpretation report.    4. The interpretation report is sent to the doctor in charge.
With advances in medical imaging apparatus, the number of medical images captured tends to increase year by year. The increasing rate of the number of interpretation doctors is, however, low as compared with the increasing rate of the number of medical images captured. For this reason, it is said that the amount of work per interpretation doctor tends to increase year by year, resulting in increased fatigue experienced by interpretation doctors. In general, people tend to make mistakes as fatigue increases. That is, the increasing fatigue by interpretation doctors may lead to an increase in oversights and misdiagnosis of diseases. Demands have therefore arisen for diagnosis support apparatus that reduces the work load on interpretation doctors.
The main work of an interpretation doctor can be roughly divided into two parts, for example, interpretation itself and interpretation report creation. Studies have been made on computer-aided diagnosis apparatus (to be referred to as CAD apparatus hereinafter) as apparatus for supporting interpretation itself. Some of them have been commercialized, such as interpretation support apparatus for mammography. However, a CAD apparatus is an apparatus for reducing the oversight of diseases and is designed based on the assumption that an interpretation doctor interprets by himself/herself first, and then the CAD apparatus displays the detected disease candidate images. This apparatus therefore cannot reduce amount of work for the interpretation doctor. Instead, this may require additional work in the form of reexamining the disease candidate images detected by the CAD apparatus.
On the other hand, studies have been made on a report creation support apparatus as an apparatus that supports interpretation report creation. The report creation support apparatus is an apparatus that inputs finding sentences more efficiently, which are normally input manually by an interpretation doctor, and is aimed at reducing the work load on the interpretation doctor who is associated with interpretation report creation.
Description items for an interpretation report are roughly divided into three classifications, namely “information obtained before interpretation”, “interpretation finding”, and “attachment of a copy of a slice image”.
Information obtained before interpretation, which belongs to the first classification, includes at least part of                information associated with examination (an examination ID, an examination date, an imaging apparatus, an imaging region, imaging conditions, and the like),        information associated with a patient (a name, age, sex, and the like), and        information associated with an examination institution and doctor (a hospital name, a medical office name, the name of a doctor in charge, an interpretation doctor, and the like). Many of these pieces of information are input or determined in advance in medical information systems such as a hospital information system (HIS) and radiology information system (RIS). Therefore, allowing these information systems to send information to a diagnosis support apparatus allows it to automatically enter these pieces of information on an interpretation report.        
In an interpretation finding, which belongs to the second classification, the interpretation doctor writes his/her medical judgment about an abnormal shade, if any, on an image to be interpreted. The doctor may also write information indicating that there is no abnormality.
Attachment of a copy of a slice image, which belongs to the third classification, is to attach a copy of a slice image depicting, for example, an abnormal shade most legibly. In this case, the interpretation doctor sometimes superimposes and draws, on the copy of the slice image, a graphic pattern (an arrow indicating the abnormal shade, in general) indicating at which position or in which area on the copy of the slice image the abnormality is seen.
A general report creation support apparatus is automated to enter information obtained before interpretation, which belongs to the first classification of the above three classifications of report description items. This apparatus also allows an interpretation doctor to perform attachment of a slice image, which belongs to the third classification, with simple operation. Patent references 1, 2, and 3 have also proposed techniques associated with input support of findings, which belongs to the second classification.    Patent reference 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-33327    Patent reference 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-155002    Patent reference 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-181137